1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a method and system for operating system recovery, and particularly to a method and system that recovers the operating system of a computer system using a disk-to-disk (D2D) method. The present invention further relates to using a build-to-configuration (BTC) mode to model computer systems.
2. Description of the Related Art
During the production of a computer system, the manufacturer usually installs an operating system (OS) in a data storage device, such as the hard disk of the computer system. The operating system includes related hardware device drivers and applications. The manufacturer generally installs an OS image file (copy) of an operating system in the hard disk of the computer system, and the computer system will unpack the OS image file in the hard disk to preset the operating system when users first power on the computer system.
The manufacturer may also install patch files or update files in a patch directory of the hard disk of the computer system, in which the patch files can be used to upgrade or patch the hardware device drivers and applications in the computer system. After the computer system presets the operating system, the computer system will copy the patch files to the corresponding location of the hardware device drivers and applications, and run the patch files to upgrade or patch hardware device drivers and applications accordingly.
Normally, a system disc (SCD) and a recovery disc (RCD) is accompanied with the computer system and provided to users in their entirety. The system disc includes patch files, applications and drivers. The recovery disc includes bootable files and an OS image file. When the hardware device drivers and applications of the computer system are to be updated, the manufacturer places the patch files (updated files) into the system disc. Thus, users may use the system disc to update corresponding hardware device drivers and applications.
If the computer system is sold to a country which allows multiple languages as official languages, such as Switzerland, the manufacturer may format the hard disk into a specific format and install OS image files in respective language versions respectively therein by a specific kit of tool, such as Microsoft Multiple Operating System Preinstallation Toolkit (MPK). Users may select one the OS image files to pre-setup the operating system when they first power on the computer system. In this case, three recovery discs for each language version as well as the computer system have to be presented to users in their entirety. However, only one of the recovery discs may include the bootable files under the regulation of the OS vendor. If the computer system encounters malfunction or failure, it is inconvenient to use the recovery disc having the bootable files to restart the computer system, and then use the recovery disc of the appropriate version to recover the computer system.
In addition, since software including the operating system, hardware device drivers and applications is necessary to be updated frequently, the cost of the system disc and the recovery disc has become burdens for the manufacturer.